Designer.

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It has been a fantastic year. I am working on a project I have been stoking for several years, and managed to gain experience in User Centred Design, which I want to pursue more in 2015.

This blog, and the website are long overdue a refresh. I set this site up in 2009. I was doing a very different job, web development in a small agency dreaming on designing full time; fast-forward 6 years and I am a Designer for a company who’s website receives 2 million visitors a week – a number that staggers me.

The industry is forever changing, but this year for me as a front-ender it has changed most drastically. Embracing tools such as CodeKit and Grunt mean that assets are optimised in fractions of a second with no hassle. I really don’t know why I stayed away from these things as long as I have – it reignited my interest in front-end development.

But I am at the stage of my career where I attempt to specialise in my profession. This year I was still programming PHP, HTML, SASS and working on wireframes and user testing. With focus comes a competence and authority in your opinions. So as much I have enjoyed coding I look to do less, apart from some functional wireframes where required.

2015 is where I really begin experimenting with A/B and MVT. Gathering feedback from users and designing improved experiences, and measuring these things. This is my future.

I am now the proud owner of an Apple laptop! I use Macs all day at work, but still used an old Dell laptop for personal stuff. It was time to upgrade. So with my shiny, aluminium toy I immediately went to Twitter to ask what apps people use to code on as well as their top 5 apps. I had a huge response, and here are the top 5 mac apps for web designers:

I’ve been a big fan since his first book, Creative Mischief. This has been my most read, and lent-out book. I have started recommending it to everyone because although Dave is an Ad Man, the messages and stories are relatable to anyone.

I watched a talk by Gavin Strange (@jamfactory) http://vimeo.com/61248847 where he had a page full of things that interested/inpired him recently. Braun watches, old sticker packets and wicked-awesome camera rigs. I’d like to play with creating one of these a week/month as a visual representation for the things that I have consumed.

Design is thinking made visual(*), it is problem solving. But this process takes time. Things cannot be ‘designed’ overnight. That is styling. Unfortunately many don’t know the difference.

It takes a real understanding of the problem to provide the right solution. This means designers need to be involved at the very early stages of a project. Thinking that a designer can come along at the end and ‘design’ it basically means that they are looking for someone to simply style their solution.

Design is not simply styling.

If this happens, and if you willfully let it happen then you are harming the profession you work in. To get away from this situation, you need to educate those you work with.

Designers should be involved at the very beginning. This avoids a ‘chinese whispers’ effect of others interpreting the requests a certain way and relaying them. It is best to be with the client or stakeholder to understand their requests firsthand. Afterwards, write a brief and have all parties agree to it. This will be the brief that the design solution is marked against.

This is the start of getting away from simply styling other peoples’ solutions.

This has been a wish for several years. I’ve been promised a few, and tried to organise a couple after work, but there are many reasons why I think that a daytime hack day at the office would be a good thing for everyone, including the business. Continue reading →